Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MAD, a. [Sax. gemaad; Ir. amad; It. matto, mad, foolish; mattone, a brick, and an arrant fool; matteria and mattezza, foolishness; ammattire, to become distracted.]

1. Disordered in intellect; distracted; furious. We must bind our passions in chains, lest like mad folks, they break their locks and bolts. Taylor.
2. Proceeding from disordered intellect or expressing it; as, a mad demeanor. Milton.
3. Enraged; furious; as, a mad bull. And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them, even to foreign cities. Acts xxvi.
4. Inflamed to excess with desire; excited with violent an unreasonable passion or appetite; infatuated; followed properly by after. The world is running mad after farce, the extremity of bad poetry. Dryden. “Mad upon their idols,” would be better rendered, “Mad after their idols.” Jer. i.
5. Distracted with anxiety or trouble; extremely perplexed. Thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes. Deut. xxviii.
6. Infatuated with folly. The spiritual man is mad. Hos. ix.
7. Inflamed with anger; very angry. [This is a common and perhaps the most general sense of the word in America. It is thus used by Arbuthnot, and is perfectly proper.]
8. Proceeding from folly or infatuation. Mad wars destroy in one year the works of many years of peace. Franklin.